The expansion of Staffordshire firm SSC Laser is likely to continue unabated following the successful launch of a new manufacturing site in the East Midlands.
The laser cutting specialist, which is headquartered at a 28,000 sq ft facility at Hixon near Stafford, established the new Derby factory in January and the site is now fully operational, employing 9 people.
The firm, a specialist in sub contract laser profiling, announced record turnover of over £5m at the end of August 2011 and plans are now in place to open further UK manufacturing sites as early as this year, with the North East the first likely beneficiary.
Sales director Andy Evans said of the new set-up: “It’s ironic because the factory we have moved into is on the old Qualcast site on Victory Road in Derby and our sister company Turfmech Machiney recently acquired the manufacturing rights to build Qualcast mowers at our factory in Hixon near Stafford.” Derby is the first of what is planned to be an aggressive roll out of manufacturing operations for SSC Laser, which has sales offices around the UK.
The company, which also provides press-braking, laser scanning and an in-house CAD service, harbour ambitions to establish SSC Laser operations in every major city in the UK.
Andy said: “These are really exciting times for us. We have opened a sales office in Slough at Regus on the Bath Road and that office now employs two people. Lawrence Cairns is the Southern sales manager and he has been joined by Ian Coltman as a sales estimator. The plan is for Lawrence and Ian to build the business over the next 18 to 24 months and we will then commit to a manufacturing facility in the area.” Sunderland, which missed out to Derby in becoming the firm’s first manufacturing facility outside of Staffordshire, may welcome expansion later this year.
Mr Evans added: “February 2012 will see a brand new Bystronic Byspeed Pro 3015 Flat Bed Laser installed at the Hixon division and there are plans to expand the operation in Sunderland later in 2012 by opening a manufacturing facility, using the same business model as the Derby site.”
SSC Laser has teamed up with sister company Turfmech to give away one of their top of the range cyclinder mowers per division for any orders placed over £500 from new customers in the month of March 2012.
